This will be my last "Message from our Chairman" as I step aside and into the "Past Chair" role to make way for Gil Dolor who assumes the reigns in January.  This has been an exciting year to be associated with the Houston Section.  I hope I have been successful in giving back a small piece of what I have received over my few short years of service to IEEE members.

I am grateful for all who have served in various capacities over the past years, some of you having served for many many years.  New blood, however, is one of the strengths of any organization and we added some very strong members to the Executive Committee this year including John Lionberger, Power Engineering, Polo Gutierrez, PACE; Anil Garg, Student Activities; and Shannon Quadros, Engineering Council of Houston.  They have all demonstrated a willingness to serve by learning their responsibilities quickly and aggressively getting involved.  In addition, Donald Dunn, our esteemed Past Chair, will replace Bill Whipkey as our Region 5 South Area Representative so the good news for us is that we can expect to see a lot of Donald over the next several years.

After a great start in 2002 when we awarded 3 scholarships to deserving engineering students of IEEE Houston Section Members, the scholarship committee, under the direction of Scott Balew, raised the ante and we will be awarding 5 scholarships as a result of our golf benefit tournament this year.  We anticipate this event growing even bigger each year to the point where we can provide even more scholarships and/or larger dollar amounts.

A major highlight of the year was an awards banquet in September celebrating the Houston Section's 75th anniversary.  This event was attended by over 60 members, many of which were past Section Chairs.  Jean Eason, Region 5 Section Chair gave a history of IEEE and linked it to the founding of the Houston Chapter some 75 years ago.  The event gave us a great opportunity to recognize and formally present a plethora of awards which the Section received in 2002 (see Pres Message September). 

We had 4 outstanding Section Meetings during the year, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Justo Benitez, program chair.  He not only had to find the presenters but then had to do some last minute schedule juggling when the Hess folks pulled the rug out from under us a couple of times.  But he and P.J. Donner worked out the dates and rescheduled the presenter and the events went off without a hitch. 

Our Continuing Education Program continues to set the standard for the whole of IEEE.  They have completed their 8th year of outstanding educational programs and I commend all those associated with this program for their dedication and longevity of the program.  And, because of the success of this program, the Communications Society has started a CED program of their own, mirrored after the CED program.  We anticipate that this will grow into a very successful program in its own right.

It has been a wonderful experience serving as your Section Chair this year.  I appreciate and acknowledge all the help I received from the ExCom; they helped guide me in performing my duties and responded to my requests -- and sometimes pleas.  Many thanks to you all. 

So now I pass the baton to Gil Dolor who, I'm sure, will do an outstanding job in leading us through the year ahead.  I urge you all to give Gil your full support.  He can certainly count on mine. 

Have a great Christmas Holiday and I hope to see many of you at our next Section meeting in February.  Watch this column for details on topic and presenter.   

Dwayne Lowry
Houston Section Chair -- but just till January 1